[Effect of Manual Acupuncture, Electroacupuncture and Moxibustion on Intestinal Motility and Expression of Enteric Nervous Activity Related Proteins in Functional Constipation Rats].

Objective: To compare the effect of manual acupuncture (MA), electroacupuncture (EA) and moxibustion interventions on intestinal motility and expression of enteric nervous activity related proteins calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP), transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV 1) and proteinase activated receptor-4 (PAR-4) in colon tissue of rats with functional constipation (FC), so as to select a better intervention method for FC.

Methods: Sixty male SD rats were randomly divided into blank control (=8), model (=11), medication (=8), MA (=11), EA (=11), and moxibustion (=11) groups. The FC model was established by gavage of suspension of loperamide hydrochlorid for 6 days. Rats of the medication group were treated by gavage of cisapride (3 mg/kg), once daily for 6 days. MA, EA or moxibustion was separately applied to bilateral "Tianshu"(ST 25) and "Shangjuxu"(ST 37) for 15 min, once daily for 6 days. The stool weight within 24 h was measured every day, and the intestinal propulsive rate was calculated by feeding the rats with suspension fluid containing sodium carboxymethylcellulose and active carbon powder (3%) on the last day of the experiment. The expression levels of CGRP, TRPV 1 and PAR-4 proteins and genes in the colon tissue were measured by Western blot and quantitative real-time PCR, respectively.

Results: Compared with the control group, the stool weight within 24 h and intestinal propulsive rate were significantly decreased in the model group (<0.01). Compared with the model group, the two indexes considerably increased in the medication, MA and EA groups (<0.05, <0.01), and the intestinal propulsive rate was also notably increased in the moxibustion group (<0.05), suggesting an improvement of the intestinal motility after the treatment. The expression levels of intestinal CGRP, TRPV 1 and PAR-4 proteins and genes were significantly higher in the model group than in the control group (<0.01), and considerably lower in the medication, MA, EA and moxibustion groups than in the model group (<0.05, <0.01, except the protein expression of CGRP in the moxibustion group). No significant differences were found among the medication, MA, EA and moxibustion groups in the stool weight, between the medication and EA groups and between the EA and moxibustion groups in the intestinal propulsive rate, and among medication, EA and moxibustion groups in the expression levels of TRPV 1 mRNA, and among the medication, MA and EA groups in the expression levels of CGRP, TRPV 1 and PAR-4 proteins (<0.05).

Conclusions: MA, EA and moxibustion interventions can promote the intestinal motility in FC rats, which may be related to their functions in down-regulating the expression of CGRP, TRPV 1 and PAR-4 proteins and genes (except CGRP in the moxibustion group).